Assembly ponders 'matrix' model of teacher evaluation, skeptically

ALBANY—Following negotiations with the governor this weekend, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie asked the Democratic members of his conference to consider alternative means of doing teacher evaluations.

Assembly members interviewed by Capital referred to one of the models under serious discussion as a “matrix” or “grid,” which include a variety of “boxes” or categories for measuring educators’ performance. A spokesman for the conference confirmed that a “matrix” model was one possibility lawmakers are considering.

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But the Democratic members—many of whom are closely allied with the teachers' unions, and are at odds with Cuomo's push to make teachers ratings more heavily contingent on testing—said they had not seen exact language to describe what Heastie was proposing. And in the absence of further detail, some worried that the proposed alternatives were simply repackaged versions of what the governor was pushing for.

Heastie presented the options for discussion during a private meeting on Monday starting just after noon. As lawmakers absorbed the briefing, they chatted with the conference’s lawyers and talked quietly together in small groups in the hallway outside the conference room before going into session around 2 p.m. They voted on several bills on the floor before going back behind closed doors around 3:30 p.m.

“It’s trying to measure other things that have always been measured, as well as teaching, but I don’t know how it would work,” Assembly higher education committee chair Deborah Glick said.

“Testing is always going to be a piece of it, but they were pretty much excluding everything else, so this is putting some of those things back in,” she continued, criticizing the plan in the governor's budget proposal, which would base 50 percent of the teacher ratings on testing.

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, a Democrat from Westchester, said she needs more information on the proposal. But she said it sounds like the plan is being sold as a “matrix” when it’s actually not much different than the current system, which is based on student test scores and observations.

“If it’s what I think it is, one side down the matrix is still one test … and the other side is performance evaluation by the school district,” she said. “It doesn’t look like a matrix to me. It looks like an index, because you have 50 percent and 50 percent. That means there’s still a score based on 100 percent, which is not a matrix.

“I’m looking for someone to show me the matrix, show me the boxes, the different components,” she said.

Assemblywoman Pat Fahy, a Democrat from Albany, said she wasn’t convinced, either, that the new model addressed her conference’s concerns about the reliance on student test scores to rate teachers.

“One of my big big concerns is to find out how much it would still emphasize testing, because that’s where I think we are going to lose the parents,” Fahy said. “I am not sure if we have sufficiently addressed de-emphasizing testing.”

Assembly education committee chair Catherine Nolan, a Queens Democrat, wouldn’t comment until after the members finished discussing the proposals.

Heastie would not give any details, either.

“We’re going over a whole bunch of options under education, and we still have to continue conference,” he said.

It’s unclear whether the proposals would require observations to be conducted by someone from outside a teacher’s school or district, as proposed by Cuomo. Both Assembly Democrats and Senate Republicans oppose that component, calling it an unfunded mandate.

“We have continued to suggest that that’s not acceptable,” said Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, a Democrat from Rockland County. “We were very strong on that piece.”

Members were also discussing a plan for turning around chronically underperforming schools, but they gave few details as to what they were considering.

Jaffee said she didn’t expect her conference to agree to Cuomo’s proposal for a state takeover of such schools or districts.

“We certainly are articulating our concerns about the governor’s plans, and right now, I am optimistic given some of the conversations, that we are moving in the right direction,” Jaffee said.